Defending National Champions Will Open Season With Two Matches

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Saturday, the Yale women's squash team will travel to Pennsylvania to begin its national title defense at Franklin & Marshall at 10 in the morning before facing Haverford at 3.

Yale begins the season ranked No. 2, and has lived up that ranking so far, dominating the Ivy Scrimmages before dropping the finals to Harvard despite playing without its top two freshmen. Issey Norman-Ross and Shihui Mao are both still injured and will not participate in the weekend's matches, but their absence opens up the lineup to participation from other players, such as fellow freshman Anna Harrison, who won all three of her matches in the No. 9 spot at the scrimmages.

If the Bulldogs hopes to repeat their excellence of last season, they will need strong showings throughout the lineup. Sophomore Millie Tomlinson is the defending national champion and the No. 1 ranked player in the nation. Fellow sophomore Kim Hay is No. 15, and senior captain Rhetta Nadas is No. 33.

The players that were in the Nos. 4-6 spots in the Ivy scrimmages were senior Alexandra van Arkel, junior Katie Ballaine, and senior Aly Kerr. Rounding out the first nine were sophomores Gwen Tilghman and Lilly Fast, with Harrison playing at No. 9.

While Haverford and Franklin & Marshall don't field teams of quite the caliber of the Ivy League, the matchups will nevertheless represent a good matchup against new competition for the Yale squad, and the results could determine how the team trains offer the winter break and leading up to the first matches of 2012.